(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (“LCD”).
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as an “LCD”) is one of the most widely used flat panel displays. A typical LCD includes two display panels provided with electric field generating electrodes, such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two display panels. In the typical LCD, voltages are applied to the electric field generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the liquid crystal layer. Due to the generated electric field, alignment of the liquid crystal molecules may be controlled to effect polarization of incident light passing therethrough, thereby displaying images.
The typical LCD also includes switching elements connected to the respective pixel electrodes, and a plurality of signal lines such as gate lines and data lines for controlling the switching elements and applying voltages to the pixel electrodes.
The typical LCD receives an input image signal from an external graphics controller, the input image signal contains luminance information for each pixel PX, and the luminance has a particular number of possible grays (e.g., a preset grayscale). Each pixel is applied with a data voltage corresponding to the desired luminance information. The data voltage applied to the pixel appears as a pixel voltage according to a difference with reference to the common voltage, and each pixel displays the luminance representing a gray of the image signal according to the pixel voltage. Here, the range of the pixel voltages that are applicable to the LCD is determined according to a driver.
On the other hand, the driver of the LCD is typically mounted on the display panel in a form of a plurality of IC chips, or is installed on a flexible circuit film and attached to the display panel. However, the IC chip makes up a high proportion of the manufacturing cost of an LCD.
Also, the aperture ratio of a display device is remarkably reduced as the number of wires formed in the liquid crystal panel assembly, such as the gate lines or data lines, increases.